I am not as old

I am not as old

I am not as oldhttps://barrenmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/IMG_3514-001-1-e1540044522730.jpg19201440Robert Alan RifeRobert Alan Rifehttps://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/6c9106d119d2e9d59f1db2954faf796b?s=96&d=mm&r=g10/20/201801/16/2019

No, I am not as old as the wilting membrane of earth – the skin of her secrets, too tightly breast-held and leaky.

No, I am not as old as last winter’s back-porch bread crumbs, now frozen in cracks of concrete and flaking paint.

No, I am not as old as the clock, heavy in memory and fingerprints – evidenced in her calloused hands.

No, I am not as old as the long- faded colour now framing the painting’s place – a reminiscence tucked in a reminiscence. The irony of old beauties.

No, I am not as old as the tales and fables, born wild and then loosed in the telling, fermenting into many-tongued song.

No, I am not as old as the coughing farm truck, grizzled metal and clogged arteries, belching orders under a hollow back, still unbroken.

No, I am not as old as the cathedral stone, serenely quiet in the preachy way of ancient things always new.

About the Author

Canadian born, Robert Alan Rife serves as Minister of Worship Arts for Yakima Covenant Church in Yakima, Washington. He’s a celebrated recording artist, singer-songwriter, liturgist, poet, and writer. His two blogs, innerwoven and Robslitbits nourish his love for the music of words. You can find his writing in numerous places, including The Bees Are Dead, Relief Journal, Transpositions, Centerquest, ALTARWORK, among others. Most of all, he looks for sacramental intersections where life, liturgy, literature, the arts, and spirituality meet. Oh, and he loves haggis.